Van Gogh's Moon Shines Again This Weekend

Detail of Van Gogh's 'Moonrise', showing the moon peeking around the edge of a cliff.“If you go out this Sunday evening and look up at the Moon, you will see not only our closest celestial neighbor, but a piece of art history as well. The rising full moon will appear exactly the way it did 114 years ago, when Vincent Van Gogh captured the scene in his famous painting ‘Moonrise.'” Melanie Milton Knocke

Van Gogh’s Moon Shines Again This Weekend (Planetary Society)

Umm… if you’re going to view a moonrise, you shouldn’t look up at the moon, you should look at the eastern horizon. And while the term “evening” is a bit flexible, you won’t see anything until around sunset (since the full moon rises as the sun sets). Here’s a more accurate but much less quotable press release from Southwest Texas State University about the atstronomers who figured out the exact date of the painting.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *